1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to racks for supporting grocery bags in an upright position, and more particularly to a rack which readily fits into the trunk or cargo compartment of an automobile or station wagon and is adapted to suspend loaded plastic-film grocery bags from a horizontal bar so that the mouths of the bags are then closed and the bags are all maintained in an upright position on the floor of the compartment.
2. Status of Prior Art
The conventional grocery bag now in general use in supermarkets is formed of plastic-film material having an open mouth and provided with a pair of upwardly extending handle loops integral with opposing sides of the bag. The patent to Jenkins, U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,743, discloses a rack to facilitate loading of a bag of this type at a supermarket checkout counter. The Jenkins rack has a rectangular frame to receive the bag, the upper rails of the frame including U-shaped elements that are engaged by the loops of the bag to maintain the bag in an open state while being loaded with groceries.
The concern of the present invention is with what happens to this plastic-film grocery bag after it is loaded in a supermarket. As pointed out in the Wolfe U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,512, bags full of groceries are typically placed in the trunk of an automobile or into the cargo space at the back of a station wagon. These loaded grocery bags receive little lateral support; hence even mild cornering or stop and go driving can often cause a loaded grocery bag to overturn, especially where there are no canned goods or other relatively heavy articles at the bottom of the bag to stabilize the bag in the trunk or in the cargo space of a station wagon.
Should a loaded grocery bag overturn, the shopper must then, when arriving home, retrieve and rebag the spilled contents scattered over the floor of the trunk or cargo space of a station wagon. And should the articles spilling out of the bag be fragile or breakable, then the shopper may be faced with cleaning up a wasteful and unsightly mess. Wolfe's solution to this problem is to provide an elaborate, foldable framework including various upright support members and latch means therefor.
The same problem is addressed by Dottor et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,348. This patent points out that when loaded grocery bags are placed anywhere in an automobile, then sudden stoppages, fast accelerations and quick turns can frequently wreak havoc among the bags. According to Dottor et al., the modern automobile in this age of shopping malls and supermarkets serve two primary functions; the first, of course, being to transport passengers; the second to transport groceries.
But though automobile manufacturers include in their vehicles devices to receive the spare tire and bumper jack in the trunk compartment and also provide seat belts and shoulder straps to secure the driver and the passengers, no attention is paid to securing bagged groceries being transported in these vehicles. To this end, Dottor et al. provides a foldable unit which is installable in the trunk of a vehicle, and which when erected creates an array of compartments, each adapted to accommodate a loaded grocery bag and to maintain it in an upright position. However, the Dottor et al. arrangement is complex and relatively expensive.
The Herlitz et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,213 provides skid slats in the rear cargo compartment of a station wagon which can in a cargo-support mode then act to support packages in an upright manner during operation of the vehicle.
The Majewski U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,056 discloses a portable rack sized to fit into the trunk of a car, the rack having several partitions for minimizing the movement of articles placed therein when being transported from a point of purchase to the home of the shopper.
While the above-noted prior art patents seek to maintain grocery bags in an upright position, they do not take into account the differences between strong paper grocery bags made of kraft paper and the type of plastic film bag that in most supermarkets has replaced paper bags. Paper bags are relatively stiff, and when loaded with groceries, these bags will maintain their form. But plastic film bags have little rigidity and are therefore collapsible. Such bags, when loaded, are difficult to maintain in an upright position unless they are suspended by their handle loops.